Student Union
2020 Sees Higher Education Admissions Scandal, Visa Challenges for International Students
The coronavirus pandemic led to more than 1.7 million deaths and 79 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 — the disease caused by the virus — and international students around the world largely escaped health affects but were disrupted in their studies.
Higher education in the United States also was roiled by a huge admissions scandal and immigration restrictions, which punctuated a chaotic and anxiety-ridden year.
The issues:
College admissions scandal
Nearly three dozen parents, including "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were sentenced in a high-profile college admissions scandal that revealed wealthy parents buying their children's way into college.
The family of Yusi "Molly" Zhao, who was admitted to the sailing program at Stanford University in 2017, paid to get their daughter into the highly selective school. The family of another student, Sherry Guo, paid $1.2 million to assist in her entry to Yale University in Connecticut.
Another parent, Xiaoning Sui of Surrey, British Columbia, was sentenced to five months and ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 in addition to forfeiting the $400,000 she paid to William "Rick" Singer, who facilitated the admissions arrangements.
Singer pleaded guilty to accepting more than $25 million for connecting parents and their children with test administrators and college coaches.
Staff from several universities were involved in the case, such as Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, University of California Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. But the U.S. Justice Department deemed the schools were unaware of the staff activity and were nonparticipants in the bribery.
China connections
The January arrest of a Harvard professor who is a pioneer in nanoscience shed light on relationships between American brain power, the Chinese government and funding between the two that involves intellectual property theft.
Charles Lieber, head of Harvard University's chemistry department and a world leader in nanoscience, was charged with lying about receiving funding from Chinese research agencies. Lieber was simultaneously receiving research funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.
The U.S. government alleges that Lieber hid being paid up to $50,000 a month by the Chinese government. He also received more than $1.5 million to create a research lab at Wuhan University of Technology in China, according to court documents.
Lieber denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the charges in July.
In 2020, the U.S. pursued several cases against researchers and educators, like Lieber, who had connections with the Chinese government or Chinese companies.
Visa challenges
The Trump administration issued several changes regarding immigration and modifications that affected the stability of student visas throughout the year.
In July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a rule that would require international students in the U.S. to attend some classes in person — not exclusively online — or risk deportation during the pandemic.
ICE rescinded the rule after Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit against the U.S. with signatures of support from more than 200 U.S. universities.
Affirmative action lawsuits
A federal appeals court ruled that Harvard University does not discriminate against Asian American applicants after a group accused the university of imposing a "racial penalty" on Asian Americans.
Harvard University said an applicant's race is only one factor in its "holistic" admissions process and denied any discrimination.
Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit that aims to eliminate the use of race in college admissions, filed the lawsuit in 2014, and has failed in other attempts to sue universities on the grounds of unfair admissions.
The youth vote
The youth vote, especially young voters of color, turned out in record numbers to support President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the 2020 presidential elections.
Among the nearly 240 million eligible voters in the U.S., about 20% were 18- to 29-year-olds, and they favored Biden over President Donald Trump by 61% to 36%, according to data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Top issues for young voters included COVID-19, health care, race relations and climate change, according to CIRCLE polls. Gun violence and student loan debt were also key issues that swayed their choice to choose the next president.
2020 Open Doors report
New enrollment of international students dropped 43% at the start of the 2020-2021 academic year because of COVID-19, according to an annual report. Nearly 40,000 students — mostly incoming freshmen — deferred enrollment to a future term at 90% of U.S. institutions.
The data were compiled and reported by the Institute for International Education and published in its annual Open Doors report about international students in the U.S. It is funded by the U.S. Department of State, which issues visas to students and visitors participating in educational or vocational training.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators found that the 2019-2020 international enrollment at U.S. colleges and universities accounted for $38.7 billion, a drop of $1.8 billion – a 4.4% decrease – from the previous year.
It was the first time that the dollar amount international students contribute to U.S. colleges and universities dropped in 20 years, NAFSA reported.
The coronavirus pandemic also left U.S. colleges and universities reeling in 2020.
See all News Updates of the Day
- By VOA News
Studying STEM? International students have funding options
US News & World Report takes a look at funding options for international students pursuing STEM degrees in the U.S.
The article explains the different kinds of scholarships and grants and offers tips on getting part-time jobs and private student loans. Read the full story here. (March 2024)
- By Robin Guess
US campuses are battlegrounds in free speech debate
This week the University of Southern California canceled the graduation speech of its senior class valedictorian at a time when there is a growing debate over the limits of free speech on American college campuses.
USC’s Asna Tabassum, a Muslim biomedical engineer major, was selected from among 100 outstanding students to address the graduating class of 2024 this May. However, the school withdrew the invitation for her to speak at the graduation ceremony citing safety concerns.
Tabassum denounced the decision, which she attributed to her public support for Palestinian human rights. She said it is part of “a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.”
The school maintains it is a safety issue, not about free speech. School officials say they received an alarming number of violent threats after selecting her as speaker.
USC is one of many American universities that have struggled with policies over free speech and campus protest since October’s Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the continuing fighting in Gaza. After weeks or months of on-campus protests and rallies, schools have been taking more forceful action to punish protesters who administrators say have become disruptive.
On Thursday at Columbia University in New York, police arrested more than 100 students who had gathered on campus for pro-Palestinian protests. The school’s dean wrote that the protesters had been told several times that they were violating university policies and would be suspended. The students say they were exercising their free speech rights.
At Washington’s American University, protests in all campus buildings have been banned by the school’s president since January. Under the new policy, students may not hold rallies, engage in silent protests or place posters in any campus building.
Protests and safety
University students have a long history of engaging in political activism. From the Vietnam War to abortion rights, universities have played a key role in American political debates.
However, students now say that schools like AU with a long-standing protest culture are silencing protesters with new rules.
Arusa Islam, American University student body president-elect and current vice president, says the policies are preventing an open discussion about U.S. foreign policy.
“Indoor protesting was never a problem, it was never an issue before October 7th,” Islam said. “Students were allowed to put up posters in buildings and students were allowed to have a silent protest.”
“And now we don’t have that right anymore,” she added. “We have been silenced and it is affecting us greatly.”
American University’s president, Sylvia Burwell, says the school’s new policies are intended to ensure that protests do not disrupt university activity.
Burwell also referred to recent events on campus that “made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome.” She added, antisemitism is abhorrent, wrong, and will not be tolerated at American University.
While administrators insist that they are making narrow restrictions in the interests of providing an education, critics say the policies have a far-reaching effect.
At Cornell University, where new rules took effect in January, Claire Ting, the executive vice president of the Cornell Student Assembly, said the policies have had an unsettling effect on campus.
“The campus climate at Cornell has been tense surrounding free speech in recent times,” Ting emailed VOA.
Ting said that both students and faculty feel the policy has had chilling effects on free expression.
“Students report facing arbitrary, escalating punishment for violating the policy, with the policy itself lacking clear outlines for the consequences of civil disobedience,” she added.
In its new policy Cornell warns students that disciplinary action may be taken if protests impede people or traffic, damage school property or interfere with the school’s operations in any way.
In its campus-wide notice explaining the new guidelines, the school wrote that the new policy would ensure that expressive activity is allowed but must remain nonviolent.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, also known as FIRE, has tracked free speech issues on American campuses.
FIRE and College Pulse have produced an annual survey, since 2022, ranking colleges based on their policies and what students say about the free speech climate on campus.
This year the group reported that “alarming” numbers of students say they self-censor or “find their administrations unclear” on free speech issues.
“College campuses have always been places where students have been unafraid to express themselves and with the recent Gaza conflict after the 10/7 attacks, it’s been very heated on both sides of this issue,” said Zach Greenberg, the senior program officer of FIRE.
Harvard ranked last in this year’s survey. FIRE said the school punished some professors and researchers over what they had said or written, and students reported a poor climate for free speech on campus.
The controversy came to Congress late last year, when Harvard’s president testified over complaints of widespread antisemitism.
“I don’t think you’d find many students on campus right now that would say we are the model for flourishing free speech and ideas exchange in the country,” said J. Sellers Hill, president of Harvard’s school newspaper The Harvard Crimson.
“But I think you’ve really seen that be acknowledged by administrators and it seems to be something they are dedicated to taking on.”
As the head of The Harvard Crimson, Hill manages the paper’s 350 editors and 90 reporters, who’ve covered, in detail, the ongoing free speech/protests controversy and the resignation of former President Claudine Gay following her testimony to Congress.
“I think no one would dispute Harvard has work to do and progress to make,” Hill said. “I think it’s a tough sell, for me, that Harvard is uniquely in its own league in terms of intolerance of speech. That doesn’t square with what I have seen on our college campus or on other college campuses around the country. I think Harvard is held to a higher standard.”
Proposed settlement offered over financial aid allegations
A group of U.S. colleges and universities have agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging deceptive financial aid tactics, according to a report published in The Hill.
The schools would pay $284 million to plaintiffs who were enrolled full-time and received financial aid between 2003 and 2024.
The schools have denied the allegations. (April 2024)
Universities in Middle East building research relationships with China
As China bolsters research relationships with universities in the Middle East, the United States has taken notice – especially when that research involves artificial intelligence.
Reporting for University World News, Yojana Sharma has the story. (March 2024)
Tips for staying safe while studying in the US
Recent news events have raised safety concerns among some international students studying in the United States.
Adarsh Khandelwal, writing in the India Times, has tips for staying safe from the moment you arrive until the day you complete your studies. (March 2024)
